About the author

My name is Nir Shaviv. I am a full professor at the Racah Institute of Physics in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. My main research interests revolve around the following topics:

- The behaviour of very luminous astrophysical objects, so luminous that their radiation pressure should have blown themselves apart (but they don't!). This topic is related to various objects, including classical nova eruptions, very massive stars, supernova precurors, and high rate accretion discs.

- High energy astrophysics (e.g., the diffusion of cosmic rays in the Milky Way, the PAMELA anomaly).

- Cosmic Ray effects on climate, on time scales ranging from 100's of millions of years, to the 11-year solar cycle.

A full list of publications will show that my range of interests is actually larger, including topics like the non-convensional formation of the Binary pulsar J-737-3039, astereoseismology of Roche lobe filling stars, or the distorted images of the highly magnetized magnetars.

Most of my work is theoretical, meaning that I build models and then try to compare them to data collected by other people, through very recently I actually ventured into experimental work. More about it once we have results .

I started this website in 2006 after I realized that I need a venue unrelated to the university where I can express my non-standared (but correct) views on global warming. The full story involves the threat of a lawsuit by someone who wanted to intimidate me. I will write more about it at some point (perhaps in a book). But irrespective of the trigger, it is a fun venue where I can muse on various things. I hope you enjoy the site.

Oh, if you want to read more about me, written by other people (and therefore paints a distorted picture of who I really am, take a look at the wikipedia page on me).